AMD to Ship MI450 GPUs and Helios in 2026, aiming to boost data-center revenue and support stock upside

Ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have pushed oil prices higher and raised concerns about a potential slowdown in the U.S. economy. In March, the S&P 500 fell 5%, and many individual stocks declined more sharply. Advanced Micro Devices, however, gained 2.5% over the month, as investors appear to be looking past short-term market noise toward what the company describes as a strong period ahead for its data center business.

Next-generation data center GPUs and the Helios platform

AMD is preparing to begin shipping its latest artificial intelligence (AI) chips for data centers later this year. In the second half of 2026, the company plans to start shipping its new MI450 GPUs. AMD says the MI450 can be combined with specialized hardware and software in a fully integrated data center rack called Helios.

AMD also claims that, in this configuration, the MI450 will deliver 36 times more performance than its previous GPU generations, including MI400 and MI355.

Memory capacity and early customer deployments

AMD expects Helios to include 50% more memory capacity than Nvidia’s upcoming Vera Rubin GPU system, which is widely expected to reach customers later this year. The company’s argument is that higher memory capacity can translate into faster processing speeds, potentially helping it narrow performance gaps with its largest competitor.

Meta Platforms and OpenAI are expected to be among the first customers to receive the MI450 later this year. Both companies plan to deploy 6 gigawatts of computing capacity using AMD GPUs over the next several years.

Because a single gigawatt can require anywhere from 500,000 to 1 million chips depending on performance, the deals could amount to tens of billions of dollars.

AMD’s data center growth outlook for 2026 and beyond

AMD’s data center business generated record revenue of $16.6 billion in 2025, up 32% year over year. That segment accounted for nearly half of the company’s total revenue of $34.6 billion for the year.

Looking ahead, CEO Lisa Su expects AMD’s data center revenue to grow by an average of 60% per year over the next three to five years starting in 2026. From 2027 onward, Su expects data center revenue to reach the tens of billions of dollars.

Key risk: customer commitments and OpenAI’s capacity plans

Despite the bullish outlook, the article highlights a potential risk tied to OpenAI, which is expected to be one of AMD’s largest customers based on the GPU deal referenced earlier. Wall Street is reportedly concerned about OpenAI’s ability to meet some of its large financial commitments to chipmakers such as AMD, as well as to cloud providers including Oracle and Microsoft.

For example, OpenAI reportedly agreed to rent $300 billion worth of computing capacity from Oracle over the next few years, plus an additional $281 billion in capacity from Microsoft Azure. However, OpenAI has only $25 billion in annualized revenue and is losing money at the bottom line. The company raised $122 billion from investors in March, which the article notes covers only a fraction of its future commitments.

AMD’s customer pipeline is described as diverse, meaning it is not relying solely on OpenAI. Still, if OpenAI cannot purchase as many GPUs from AMD as originally agreed, AMD’s revenue forecasts could prove too optimistic.

Valuation and expected earnings growth

On a 2025 adjusted (non-GAAP) basis, AMD earned $4.17 per share. The stock is trading at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 48.7, which the article contrasts with the Nasdaq-100 technology index’s P/E ratio of 29.9.

The article attributes AMD’s relative strength during March to investor enthusiasm about the possibility of roughly doubling the company’s data center revenue growth in 2026. It also points to the expectation of pricing power for GPUs given demand, which could support profitability as the business scales.

Wall Street expects AMD earnings to rise 59% to $6.65 per share in 2026, followed by a 62% increase to $10.77 per share in 2027. Based on those estimates, the article says AMD’s forward P/E ratios would be 30.6 for 2026 and 18.9 for 2027, suggesting the stock could be less expensive on forward earnings than its current multiple implies.